Trigeminal Neuralgia Debated in Parliament
Trigeminal Neuralgia hits the House of Commons - in a big way
On 27th July, Jim Fitzpatrick MP secured what is called an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on trigeminal neuralgia. This allows an MP to put a case to the relevant Government minister and get a response. Normally, there are only two speeches: one by the MP who initiates the debate, the other by the Minister replying on behalf of the Government. Jim, as we can certainly call him since he is himself a member of our Association and a fellow sufferer, did the job magnificently. First he had to describe TN, for knowledge of it is as scarce in parliamentary circles as elsewhere. He then referred to TNA UK, praised the work it does and told MPs how they could access our website. Finally, Jim pressed the Minister responding to the debate to do what he could on a number of issues of concern to us: the lack of adequate knowledge of TN among both medical and dental practitioners; misdiagnosis of the condition by dentists; and the need for support for the research work being done by Professor Zakrzewska and others.
The Minister replying to the debate was Paul Burstow, Minister of State in the Department of Health, who confessed that he had not heard of TN before preparing for the debate and added that the condition ‘deserves to be much better understood by policy makers, the general public and front-line clinical staff'. He reported that the Royal College of General Practitioners had stressed the need to consider TN when examining the many forms of facial pain.
Jim Fitzpatrick had referred to exchanges between the Association and the British Dental Association (BDA) which prompted the Minister to give this welcome news: ‘I join the Hon. Gentleman in welcoming the work that the BDA is doing to promote the condition and to keep these possibilities in the front of dentists' minds. By way of supporting these efforts, I have asked my officials to contact the dental deans to make sure that the condition also features in the continuing education and training of dentists. .... As an action arising from this debate, I have asked my officials to look carefully at pain management in the context of the framework for long-term neurological conditions.' Later, the minister joined with Jim Fitzpatrick in thanking organisations like TNA UK for its work.
The Association is enormously grateful to Jim Fitzpatrick for putting TN and the TNA before the House of Commons and doing so in such a forceful and effective manner.
A text of the full debate can be accessed at: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-07-27a.974.0
PLEASE NOTE There is an error in the third paragraph: There are thought to be 0.01% of the population who suffer TN.
And we hope to post a video on our website very soon.
Posted 30 July 2010
